Saturday, May 6, 2017

Anti-Vaxxers Spark a Measles Epidemic in Minnesota

Since about 2008 anti-vaxxers have been telling the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota that vaccines cause autism. Previously vaccination rates among the Somali community in Minnesota had actually been higher than the general population. There is no evidence to link vaccines with autism. And what has been the result? A record breaking measles epidemic is now ravaging Minnesota. It is the worse epidemic the state has endured in thirty years. It is particularly affecting the Somali immigrant community that had been misinformed into believing that vaccines were dangerous.

The US state of Minnesota is dealing with its largest outbreak of measles in nearly 30 years, with 41 confirmed cases reported since April. And most of the cases have occurred among a community of Somali immigrants, which the state health department says have been "targeted" by members of the anti-vaccination movement.

Minnesota's measles outbreak is the largest outbreak so far this year, and a prime example of the very real consequences of the growing anti-vaccine movement. Prior to 2008, vaccination rates in Minnesota's Somali immigrant community, the largest in the country, had been as high or higher than those in the white population. But in 2008, anti-vaccine activists began holding one-on-one meetings with families, stoking fear among parents that vaccines were contributing to autism in their children.

Among those meeting with members of the community was Andrew Wakefield, the discredited researcher who launched the anti-vaxxer movement. Two decades ago, he published a study suggesting that a popular vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella could cause autism. Though he lost his medical licence and the study was widely debunked and retracted, he nonetheless built up a following. (Anti-Vaxxers Are Responsible For Minnesota's Horrible Measles Outbreak, Gizmodo, May 6, 2017.)

The epidemic is still only in its early stages.

MINNEAPOLIS -- New numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health show the measles outbreak in the state is growing, CBS Minnesota reports.

There are now 44 cases reported in Minnesota, which is up from 41 on Thursday. The outbreak is primarily in the state's large Somali-American community, where many parents avoid the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine because of unfounded fears that it causes autism.

All but two of the cases involve unvaccinated patients. ...

"We're very early in the outbreak," said Dr. Shane McAllister, assistant professor in pediatric infectious disease and immunology at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Children's Hospital. "We're going to be seeing this for a while." (Doctors warn Minnesota measles outbreak still "early" as cases increase, CBS News, May 5, 2017.)

The anti-vaxxers held meetings among this particular group and even invited Andrew Wakefield who published a since discredited study claiming the MMR vaccine cause autism. That study has since been rejected as fraudulent but he is still revered by anti-vaxxers.

[Anti-vaxxers claim that] the MMR vaccine triggers autism, a discredited theory that spread rapidly through the local Somali community, fanned by meetings organized by anti-vaccine groups. The activists repeatedly invited Andrew Wakefield, the founder of the modern anti-vaccine movement, to talk to worried parents.

Immunization rates plummeted, and last month the first cases of measles appeared. Soon there was a full-blown outbreak, one of the starkest consequences of an intensifying anti-vaccine movement in the United States and around the world that has gained traction in part by targeting specific communities.

“It’s remarkable to come in and talk to a population that’s vulnerable and marginalized and who doesn’t necessarily have the capacity for advocacy for themselves, and to take advantage of that,” said Siman Nuurali, a Somali American clinician who coordinates the care of medically complex patients at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. “It’s abhorrent.”

Although extensive research has disproved any relationship between vaccines and autism, the fear has become entrenched in the community. “I don’t know if we will be able to dig out on our own,” Nuurali said. (Anti-vaccine activists spark a state’s worst measles outbreak in decades, Washington Post.)

Measles was declared to be eliminated from the United States at the dawn of the century but as some people chose to not vaccinate their children due to misplaced fears about vaccines measles has returned to the United States.

Some in this community that had been targeted by anti-vaxxers insist that measles is preferable to taking vaccines to immunize against measles.

Fear of autism runs so deep in the Somali community that parents whose children have recently come down with measles insist that measles is preferable to risking autism. (Anti-vaccine activists spark a state’s worst measles outbreak in decades, Washington Post.)

How terrible it is that dangerous misinformation has caused this terrible measles epidemic in Minnesota.

Armstrongism has a long history of promoting anti-medicine superstitions. Far too many people connected to Armstrongism has suffered because of the anti-medicine superstitions HWA and his collaborators promoted. It is terrible that such misinformed views continue to wrack havoc upon vulnerable communities.

Down with anti-vaxxerism! Get vaccinated. Get our children vaccinated.

If You are new please read this

Hand in Hand for Syria

Keep Somalia's Remittances Open

I encourage readers to sign this petition from Oxfam calling upon the U.S. government to let the Somali diaspora continue to send remittance to their loved ones in Somalia.

Moves have been made to shut down such remittances from Somalis in America. Many Somalis need these remittances. The remittances to Somalia are larger than foreign aid contributions and are a lifeline to these people caught in trouble and turmoil.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.